What Slump? Yankees Hit Five Homers in Rout of Royals

Paulo Orlando could not prevent Brian McCann’s homer in the Yankees’ eight-run first inning.CreditJulie Jacobson/Associated Press

By Seth Berkman

May 25, 2015

Brett Gardner accounted for four of the Yankees’ eight first-inning runs on Monday, scoring twice and driving in Didi Gregorius and Slade Heathcott with a home run.

As Gardner crossed the plate for the second time, he did not even notice it when he ran into Heathcott — a rookie center fielder who was waiting to congratulate him — and almost clotheslined him.

“I don’t hit many home runs, so maybe I was a little overly excited,” Gardner said.

The pent-up emotion was understandable. For much of the last two weeks, the Yankees had watched the opposition spray home runs against them. Over the weekend, the Texas Rangers bashed 30 runs and had 40 hits, putting together seven-run and 10-run innings during a three-game sweep.

The gaudy scoreboard numbers at Yankee Stadium continued on Monday, but this time they were put up by the home team as the Yankees coasted to a 14-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

“We’ve been on the other side of that for the last week or so,” Gardner said, adding, “So it’s nice to give your starting pitcher a big cushion like that.”

The Yankees sent 13 batters to the plate in the first inning. In addition to Gardner’s three-run shot, Chase Headley hit a two-run homer and Brian McCann had a three-run blast to give Nathan Eovaldi an 8-0 lead.

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Yankees reliever Jacob Lindgren made his major league debut, pitching two scoreless innings with two strikeouts.CreditJulie Jacobson/Associated Press

“It’s a great feeling,” said Eovaldi, who added that he had been able to attack hitters without worrying about having to throw perfect first pitches. “Nothing really compares to that.”

Before their offensive reawakening, the Yankees had dropped 10 of 11 games for the first time in 20 years. To magnify how long it had been since the franchise experienced such futility, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera made their major league debuts during that stretch, from May 23 to June 3, 1995.

After Sunday’s loss, the Yankees’ sixth in a row, Manager Joe Girardi declared that his team should be frustrated with its recent play. Mark Teixeira said players needed to step up, stop making errors and “figure out how to play the game again.”

After a 15-4 loss on Saturday, Gardner described the team as having been embarrassed on the field.

As if that were not enough ammunition for pessimists, the Royals, owners of the best record in the major leagues, were arriving in town.

But before Jeremy Guthrie recorded an out, he had allowed each of the Yankees’ first five batters to score, and more of the criticisms that recently dogged the team seemed to evaporate with each cleat that touched home plate.

The Yankees did not slow down after putting up the most runs in an inning at home since Sept. 2, 2013. After Stephen Drew hit a three-run homer in the second, every player in the starting lineup had scored once. Guthrie departed without retiring a batter in the inning and with a disconcerting line of 11 runs, nine hits, four homers and three walks.

The offensive barrage came without Carlos Beltran, who sat for a second straight game with flulike symptoms. But he was not needed as the Yankees totaled five home runs, including Heathcott’s first career homer, a two-run shot in the seventh off Greg Holland.

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The Yankees' Slade Heathcott, right, being greeted by Didi Gregorius at home plate after his two-run home run against the Royals in the seventh inning.CreditJulie Jacobson/Associated Press

“We’ve been in a little bit of a bumpy patch the last week or so, and we needed to come out firing,” Heathcott said.

In another first, the rookie reliever Jacob Lindgren made his major league debut in the eighth, inheriting a runner on first. With the entire bullpen watching from benches beyond the right-center-field wall, Lindgren got Eric Hosmer to ground out into a double play on his second pitch.

Lindgren, who was promoted on Sunday from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, threw two scoreless innings, walking two and striking out two.

During the Yankees’ slump, Girardi had to turn to his bullpen far too early in a number of games. Overshadowed by Monday’s power surge, but equally important, Eovaldi improved to 4-1 by lasting seven-plus innings and giving up only one run.

The Yankees also gave an essentially mistake-free performance, while the Royals’ defense had an error, two wild pitches and general miscommunication. In the seventh, Alex Rodriguez hit a high pop-up that Hosmer, in right field, did not break quickly enough on, and second baseman Christian Colon watched helplessly as the ball dropped over his head.

That was the kind of play that had plagued the Yankees of late.

Before the game, Girardi emphasized that fundamentals — “making pitches, timely hitting, playing defense, running the bases” — would be a necessary part of changing the team’s fortunes. And in just about every facet, the Yankees executed.

“This game can humble you pretty quickly,” Gardner said. “We played really, really well for three or four weeks; then you lose 10 out of 11 or whatever it was, and you start second-guessing yourself. Today, we needed that.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: Slumps Take Holiday as City Hosts Twin Matinees. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe